As we gather to celebrate Hanukkah by lighting the candles of the menorah, our hearts are filled with both the warmth of tradition and the awareness of the challenges we face. In these trying times, we wish you a Hanukkah infused with resilience, unity, and unwavering hope. May this ancient festival of lights inspire us to stand together and work toward a brighter future for the Jewish people and all humanity. Let the flame of each candle symbolize our shared commitment to combating hatred and fostering a more harmonious society.

Claudine Gay of Harvard University, Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offered their testimonies regarding the rise of antisemitism on their campuses in a congressional hearing on Tuesday to lawmakers on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. 

In a particular tense exchange during the “Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Antisemitism” hearing, Representative Elise Stefanik asked every university president to provide a clear “yes or no” answer on whether calls for the genocide of Jews violate [your university’s] code of conduct or rules regarding bullying or harassment? With rather appalling consistency, all three university presidents claimed that it ‘depends on the context.’

This week, hundreds of pro-Palestinian rioters swarmed the streets of Manhattan and clashed with NYPD cops while chanting “From the river to the sea,” an infamous antisemitic slogan, in an effort disrupt the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center. In Denver, Colorado, a Jewish National Fund-USA conference was picketed by protesters accusing Israel of “genocide.”

In Paris, France, a knife-wielding attacker killed one man and injured two other people near the Eiffel Tower because “Muslims are dying in Gaza.” In the UK, Camden police were investigating the vandalization of a public menorah. Israel recalled its ambassador from Madrid this week after the Spanish prime minister alleged in a TV interview that Israel was violating international law in Gaza. In a shocking display of hatred and ignorance at a high school in Sweden, a group of students made death threats against Jews while performing Nazi salutes in their classrooms.

Meanwhile, antisemitism continues to plague college campuses across the United States. A video shared on X showed former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton being harangued at Columbia University by demonstrators chanting “Hillary, Hillary you can’t hide, you are supporting genocide.” A lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley faced backlash after claiming that accounts of Hamas’ Oct.7  massacre in southern Israel were false. At Tufts University, horrifying antisemitic signs were spotted on campus, with messages including “Glory to the martyrs.”  

THIS WEEK’S GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM REPORT highlights 153 new reports of antisemitic incidents. The total includes 12 (7.84%) from the far-right, 102 (66.66%) from the far-left, 13 (8.50%) with Islamist motivations, and 26 (17.0%) unidentifiable in nature.